Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-11-03
TORTOISE SHELLS
4 Sea Captain Tells How They Are Oh.
tanned In the West Inflies


A Do. Captain Tells How They Are Oh
tanned in the West Indies.
"What have aboard? Mostly tor
toise SHE'LL" said the captain of
three-masted coaster, Just in from the
West Indies. II have been in this bust
ness twenty years. We cruise all
along the Isthmus and among the
West India islands after the shell
The natives make a business of col
Letting it in Cuba and Jamaica and all
along the coast of the mainland from
Costa Rica to Yucatan. They fit out
canoes with enough provisions and
water to last six weeks, and 20 off to
the small sea islands. They capture
the turtles in nets or with harpoons.
They are very expert I have seen
them drive harpoon through tur-
ties shell, over thirty feet away. They
haul their turtles into the boat and
take them ashore. where they kill
them. They heat the shell before a
fire. which they build on the beach.
and strip off the plates. which are the
tortoise shell of commerce. At night
they haul the canoe up on the beach
and sleep under it. Occasionally
hurricane comes up, and as their island
is generally less than fifty feet across
and only two or three feet above water,
the fishermen are swept off into the sea
and are lost.
1.-THE San Bias Indians have
method of their own for removing the
plates from turtle shells. They place
live turtle before the fire, heat the
shell until it softens, and then strip off
the plates. When this is done they
put the turtle. back into the sea, and
unless the turtle dies new plates grow
in year. There are always thirteen
plates OH the back, and seven points
around the edge of the shell that can
be used. The belly plates are also used
for certain purposes.
''They have four kinds of turtles
down there: The green turtle, the log
gerhead, the round-rump and the
hawk s-bill. The last is the kind that
produces tortoise-shell. The best shell
comes from the Mosquito coast. The
turtle season begins in March and
lasts until October. During the first
half all the fishing is done with nets
and harpoons; later the turtles are
captured on the beaches. where they
deposit their eggs. The creatures are
turned on their backs here. 1t takes
half a dozen men to turn some OF the
large ones.
There is one piece of beach half
mile long. just below Great Town, to
which the turtles make pilgrimages in
great numbers. From 1000 to 5000
are turned there every year. This
place is called Turtle HILL from the
fact that there is large hill back of
the beach, ON top of which is huge
stone just the shape of turtle. Most
of the turtles caught weigh upward of
200 pounds, and many weigh 600 or
700. The small turtles have from two
to three pounds of shell, and the large
ones as high as eight pounds. We pay
the natives 81 a pound for the shell.
Sometimes the price we sell it for here
is less than we pay for it. but as We
pay in deprecated currency and mer-
chandise, we still have a profit. At
other times, when shell is scarce here,
the price goes up to $15 a pound. About
half of the shell gathered comes to the
United States, the remainder goes to
ngland. Franc, and Germany."-N.
Y. Mail and Express.